7/17/11 @ Bethel Bible Church

I’m sure that folks who read this blog get tired of me starting these posts by saying…

“Wow! Worship was awesome! My team did great!”

Because worship can’t always be great, right?Musicians are that consistently awesome, are they?

Well, I have two answers for that. First off, I love the way Bethel approaches the worship of God. When you lead a group of people who worship out of obedience and not out of some pursuit of an emotional response, then yes, worship is always awesome because God got the praise! You hear that? God got praise today! That’s a win, every time!

And secondly, yes. My musicians are awesome. Every week. Here’s what we did.

GREATER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE (A)Second time to do this tune. As I’ve mentioned many times before, while Sovereign Grace may not seem like obvious “groove” music, the more I listen and use their stuff, the more impressed I am with how solid their rhythm stuff is. Or maybe just my band is extra groovy.

Call To WorshipI read from Jude 1:24-24.24Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

As I read during the first service, I thought, “Why didn’t I go with Ephesians 3:20?” That might have been better, but celebrating that Jesus presents us blameless is pretty good, too!

REDEEMED, RESTORED, FORGIVEN (A)This one is feeling great. The band is really at home with it and the crowd seems to have embraced it. I noticed today that it seems to prompt some physical responses to worship – hands raised, loud singing, etc. We don’t really base worship success on how man people raised their hands, but it is an encouraging sign when folks are engaging in responding to the Gospel so early in the service.

WelcomeOur youth pastor, Mark, was preaching today, so he jumped up to do the welcome. Mark was preaching out of Jude and he gave a little preview of what he’d be preaching and then prayed over us.

MAKER OF MY DAYS (C)We had a guest drummer today and he did a great job. This tune tends to be a struggle for some drummers. Our drummer, Clay, did a great job on this tune. Tim also did a lot of cool organ stuff that was new that I loved.

IntroductionMy friend, Toby Baxley, co-led with us today. He’s filling in for me in a couple of weeks and it was a good chance to introduce him to Bethel. He quoted scripture before we went into his song.

GLORIOUS (C)We’ve never done this Baloche song and I was excited when he suggested we play it. The song went great. I’ve always found the intro of the song a little sparse. Toby had a few other instruments fade in early to beef it up a bit when helped. Toby did an awesome job leading this tune. He’s gonna’ do great on July 31.

PrayerI prayed as Tim started the low D chord. It was a nice transition and Tim started it perfectly during both services.

ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING (D)I caught this version from Enfield on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. I love Enfield’s take on hymns and this was a fun one today. Smitty did a great job of carrying the guitar riff on this one. Whole tune had a great dynamic.